It'll Be The Death of Me

What does one do on an overcast day? Well, you can do all the things indoors that you've been putting off, or, if you're me, you get in the car to find a landmark. Granted, it's not a landmark everyone would want to visit, but it was interesting.

I had no idea the area I lived in had so many hidden areas! Travelling the back country roads, farms abounded with verdant hay fields alternating with towering corn fields, and sunflowers lining the roads, their bright yellow heads sagging with the weight of their seeds.

Exploring the road, I wanted to see where it ended up, and, as I suspected, it ended up at a dead end. The great part of it was though, as I drove down the gravel lane, a dike dissected it, so I found another place to ride my bike and explore. I just had to find where the end of it was.

Driving back along the lane, cows lay on a grassy hilltop overlooking the slough.


Passing the cows, I glanced under the trees and spied an old semi truck near the overgrowth. What a find! I love these old trucks and cars, especially in a state of disrepair.




I had a couple of people pass me and look intently at what I might have been photographing, and I'd bet that they hadn't even noticed the truck before.

Carrying on back down the road, I took a side street in hopes of finding the end of the dike, and sure enough, although it's not the end, I believe it's close enough, as the farm gates on it are closed. I have no idea how far it goes, but I'm going to find out, hopefully tomorrow, if it's just overcast like today.

Returning to the winding country road, I drove back to my planned destination - an old cemetery. Now, it's not my thing to visit cemeteries, but this one opened in 1895 and closed in 1946 and someone had mentioned the other day that it was well worth a visit.

Parking at the bottom, I'd been warned that it was on a really steep hill, and they definitely weren't lying. Holy cow! Starting the climb up the many, many stairs, after the first set of stairs, a bench made from boulders had been set into the side of the hill.


A sloped path cuts across the grass from the left side stairs to the precipitous stairs on the right. Looking upwards, and with a bad knee, I wondered if I'd make it to the top. Thankfully I'd grabbed my cane, as there are no railings to hold onto.


Starting up, there are, as any cemetery, there are large headstones encircled with wrought iron fencing.




Some of the fencing is missing on some of the graves, or laying in a heap behind a headstone.




I criss-crossed the grass in order to take photos, glad I was wearing my hiking boots with the extra grip on the soles. I definitely needed them as the hill is exceptionally slanted. Finally, I reached the top where the founding father of the town and his family are buried, their crosses signifying the end of the property at the very top of the hill. You can just see the top and a cross between the two trees from the below photo.


Turning around to make my way back down, here's how steep the hill is, the road at the bottom on the left:


And a different viewpoint looking down the hill:


Almost near the bottom:


On the same row as the one above, a child's grave is marked with a sheep on top of the headstone. A discarded stuffed toy lays at the foot of it, there for who knows how long?


-cont-